Prologue in Sermons: May 2

Obedience is Greater Than Fasting and Prayer

May 2

(A word from the Paterikon, that obedience is greater than a life of fasting and desert asceticism.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

They say that obedience is greater than fasting and prayer. Can this be believed?

Two blood brothers came to live in a monastery. One of them was a great faster, while the other was distinguished by great obedience, and whatever the elders commanded him, he immediately fulfilled without question; and through obedience he gained renown in the monastery. His brother, the faster, began to envy him and said: “I will test him, and then we shall see how much he has progressed in obedience.” And with these words he went to the abbot and said: “Father, allow my brother to go with me; we need to go to a certain place.” The abbot permitted them.

The brothers set out. When they came to a river, the faster said to the brother who excelled in obedience: “Enter the river and cross it.” The obedient brother entered, and crocodiles surrounded him and began in every way to fawn upon him. Seeing this, the faster said: “Come out of the river.” The brother came out.

Prophet Jeremiah Resource Page

Holy Prophet Jeremiah (Feast Day - May 1)

Verses

Souls of stone strangers to divine fear,
With stones they slew the divine Jeremiah.
On the first of May Jeremiah was killed by stones.

Synaxarion of the Holy Prophet Jeremiah

 

Holy Prophet Jeremiah as a Model for our Lives

 

May: Day 1: Teaching 2: Holy Prophet Jeremiah 

 

Holy Prophet Jeremiah in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

The Love of the Prophet Jeremiah After Death

 

Holy and Righteous Prophet Baruch 

 

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture:  The Prophetic Books of the Old Testament (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

 

Interpretation of the Prophet Jeremiah - Book I, Prologue and Introduction (Theodoret of Cyrus) 

 

 

Holy Prophet Jeremiah in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. The wondrous Prophet of the Lord, who was sanctified already from his mother’s womb, was from Anathoth. In Taphnae of Egypt he was stoned by the people and died, and he was placed in the place where the Pharaohs dwelt. For the Egyptians honored him, because they had been benefited by him: by his prayer, both the venomous snakes (asps) that were destroying them died, and also the beasts of the waters, which the Egyptians call Ephoth and the Greeks call crocodiles. And all who are faithful even to this day go to that place, and by taking some of the soil, they heal the bites of asps.

They say that Alexander of Macedon, when he came to the Prophet’s tomb and learned these things about him, transferred his relics to Alexandria and distributed them throughout every part of the city and around it, thereby driving away the asps from there. In their place he introduced the snakes called argaloi, which he brought from Argos, from which they also received this name.

Moreover, the Prophet gave a sign to the priests of Egypt that their idols would be shaken and fall to the ground through a child Savior who would be born of a Virgin in a manger. For this reason, even until now they honor as a goddess a virgin who has given birth, and they place an infant in a manger and venerate it. And when King Ptolemy asked what the cause of this was, they said that this mystery is ancestral, handed down to our fathers by a certain holy prophet, and we believe, they said, that this mystery will be fulfilled.

Interpretation of the Prophecies of the Divine Jeremiah - Book I, Prologue and Introduction (Theodoret of Cyrus)

Interpretation of the Prophet Jeremiah

 

 By Theodoret of Cyrus

 

PROLOGUE

For my part, I had supposed that the prophecy of the divine Jeremiah had no need of interpretation. But since many of the earnest urged me also to interpret this book, saying that most people are ignorant of the meaning of the prophecy, having entreated that divine grace might become my helper, I shall attempt to fulfill what has been commanded. And I shall take care, as much as possible, for brevity; and of the clearer passages I shall make a paraphrase in summary form, while those that require fuller treatment I shall endeavor to unfold. But first I shall set forth the subject of the prophecy.

Synaxarion of our Venerable Mother Isidora the Fool for Christ

Synaxarion

By Hieromonk Athanasios of Simonopetra (1987)

On this day (May 1st), we remember our Venerable Mother Isidora.

Verses

Your life is a radiant example for monastics, Isidora,
A gift from God who prefers the humble.
Isidora was secretly adorned with an immortal wreath.

This most blessed and most venerable Mother of ours, Isidora, flourished in the middle of the 4th century A.D., in the women’s cenobitic community established by the great luminary Pachomios and called that of the Tabennesiotes. Feigning foolishness and assuming the role of one possessed by a demon, she was dishonored by all her fellow nuns, rejoicing in such dishonors as in great wealth. Yet she did not escape the all-beholding eye of Christ the Pantocrator, and the holiness of her life was revealed through an angelic vision to the great ascetic and disciple of Venerable Anthony, the most holy Pitirim, who, before the entire sisterhood of the monastic women, made known the hidden treasure of the despised Venerable Isidora. But she, not enduring the wonder and the honor thereafter being shown to her, secretly fled to an unknown and desert place, seeking to please and to be acceptable to God alone, by Whom also she receives the just reward of her lifelong humility, having become a wondrous example for all the pious and God-loving.

Prologue in Sermons: May 1

 

True Friends Are An Invaluable Treasure

May 1

(A discourse on love, for the sake of which God forgives sins.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Wise people say that a true friend is an invaluable treasure. Is this really so?

Once, two monks were going to the marketplace to sell their handiwork. On the way, they parted in different directions, and during that time one of them fell into sin. When they returned home, the monk who had not sinned said to the one who had: “Come, brother, let us go to the cell.”

But he replied: “I will not go.”

“Why?” asked the pious monk.

“I have fallen into a mortal sin,” answered the fallen one.

The one who had not sinned, wishing to save his friend who was near despair, used a kind of wise deception. He said to him: “Do you know? Without you, I also fell into the same sin as you. But what is to be done? We must ask God for forgiveness.”

Holy Apostle James the Son of Zebedee in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint James was the son of Zebedee and the brother of John the Theologian. After the calling of Andrew and Peter, he too was called by the Savior Himself, together with his brother, to become His disciple. They immediately left both their father and the boat — in a word, everything — and followed the Lord. And the Lord loved them so greatly that to the one He granted to recline upon His breast at the time of the Secret Supper, and to the other to drink the cup which He Himself drank. Saints James and John showed such zeal for Christ that they desired to call down fire from Heaven and destroy the unbelievers. And perhaps they would even have done so, if His goodness had not restrained them. For this reason, therefore, the Lord would take them, together with the foremost Peter, always with Him in His prayers and in His other divine dispensations, initiating them into the higher and more secret teachings of the doctrines. This blessed James, after the Passion and the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, because Herod could not endure that he spoke with boldness and proclaimed the saving preaching, seized him and killed him with the sword, making him the second martyr after Stephen, thus sending him to the Master Christ.

Service of the Holy Glorious Neomartyr Argyri (Prologue to the 1912 Edition)

The 1912 work titled "Service of the Holy Glorious Neomartyr Argyri, who was born in Proussa and martyred in Hasköy of Constantinople" served as the definitive liturgical text for the Saint's veneration until the late 20th century. The Service was first published in Constantinople at the expense of the prominent lawyer Philippos Philippidis of Constantinople. Modern reprints, such as the 1997 and 2007 editions, often combine Philippidis’s original compilation with newer hymns composed by Saint Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis.

PROLOGUE

Having before our eyes the very great spiritual benefit which we offer to every Christian, and on the other hand having been urged by various venerable men, we proceeded to the publication of the preserved and, with much labor, collected information, as well as of the traditions maintained through living voice, concerning the life of the Venerable Martyr Argyri of Hasköy, whose sacred relic is found there within a reliquary.

The first words of the present work were written around the year 1907, when we were studying at the Great School of the Nation in Phanar, dedicating the few moments of our student life to writing historical descriptions of my homeland Hasköy; but their publication was then hindered, on the one hand by their incompleteness, and on the other by other reasons independent of my will. And we rejoice for this, because, although in itself perhaps imperfect, it has now in any case become more complete, having absorbed the studies and research of ours during this short interval.

Prologue in Sermons: April 30

To Bury the Dead in Poverty is a Deed Pleasing to God

April 30

(A discourse about Magisterian, who covered a dead man lying naked with his shirt.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

One of the works of bodily mercy consists in this: to bury the dead in poverty or to render assistance toward this, according to one’s means. I do not know how it is with others, but among you, to your honor it must be said, brethren, this good deed until now has always found sympathy. Many poor who died that were in our parish or were found dead, always you came to their body to pray for them and left your small contributions for their burial. And many, I repeat, poor dead there were among us, it was always possible to see near them a sufficient amount of money gathered, and with this money, as you yourselves know, for the unattended dead there was arranged both a proper burial, and a coffin was bought for them, and there was means to clothe them, and candles were set by the coffin, and the grave without difficulty was dug. Praising you for this, I desire that also in future time you remain just as compassionate toward your dead poor brethren as you have shown yourselves until now: I desire this because to bury the dead in poverty is a deed pleasing to God, and, consequently, it will never remain without reward.